September 10th 2024: The art of shipwrecks

I first met Bruce Collins many years ago. He heard I was working on a book project and shared with me some insight into his own books – he's now written half a dozen on shipwrecks. Some of them are out of print now, but each of them is an intriguing tome of discovery. Another friend of mine, Virginia Watson, who runs Dive Otago, has also started to research shipwrecks for a print-making art project. Bruce's work popped up often in her research so last week we all got together for lunch at Emerson's. It was a shipwreck feast over Emerson's famous sharing plates and a few of their new Hoiho brews.

Listening to these two chat away about shipwrecks was a journey filled with mystery and discovery. Bruce came loaded with crisp detail around dates and how each ship came to grief – a fount of knowledge. Bruce's writings have had a profound effect on Virginia, who first began her own shipwreck quest before Covid was a thing.

"I am exploring stories of historical waka and shipwrecks connected to Te Wai Pounamu and more specifically, Otago, Southland, and the Auckland Islands," Virginia explains.

Each artwork tells the story of a shipwreck in fine detail. Virginia has researched the Othello, Ventnor, Tararua, Grafton, Waikare, Mānuka, Tyrone, Pride of the Yarra and the Maori Girl so far with a few others in her sights. She selects them mostly on instinct. She hopes to finish up with 10-12 shipwrecks in the body of work.

"It's like some of them put their hand up – they just capture me for some reason," she reveals. "It's not necessarily the most important wrecks historically, but there's just something about their story that I feel connected to." 

When reading about the Tararua, which wrecked at Waipapa Point in 1881 with 131 lives lost, Virginia realised it was an important shipwreck. But it wasn't until she found out that her best friend's great aunt was on it, that she realised she needed to make an artwork about it. "It's these little connections," she smiles. "Quite often I'll pick one and not know why, and then it will turn out that it has connections to the other ships. There are these invisible threads between all of them."

The Ventnor was carrying the bones of 499 Chinese miners who had passed away in Otago and were being taken home when the ship struck rocks off Taranaki and then sank just outside the Hokianga Harbour. In researching this shipwreck Virginia travelled twice to the Hokianga. "I stayed in the area and just followed my nose," she recalls. "There's a memorial park up there called the Ventnor Grove, so there are trees there. I quite often put a drone up and look down on places – the drawing vision is all about the absence of horizon. In my head I also think about the opposite. I think about the shipwreck looking up. I try to think about things in that perspective. It's just patterns and shapes and lines really that come from those places that feel like they sit together."

Virginia insists there is no deadline for her project. "I've just enjoyed the process," she admits. "I've enjoyed not having a deadline and just letting it unfold. If I need to go on a break from work, I would go get an Airbnb in Bluff or the Catlins by myself and just go exploring. I take lots of photos. I go to little tiny museums. There are so many good little museums, like the Rakiura Museum, the Waikawa Museum, the Owaka Museum, and up in the Hokianga – they are treasure troves with gold that is not published online."

Virginia hopes the series of works will culminate in a hand-printed limited edition book with accompanying poems for each print.

"I see these ships as an anchor point, a pou, or a needle with a thread that connects the places they have been to the places where they now lie. It is through this thread that human stories are woven into the growth that gradually forms on the hulls."

"It is not very scientific in terms of the archaeological record," Virginia smiles. "But I hope the works serve as an entry point for people to engage with our wonderful maritime stories."

We'll keep you posted as Virginia's fascinating series develops ...

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Want to join us on the surf adventure of a lifetime exploring the Mentawai/Telo Islands off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia? We have a few spots still available on our boat trip: May 22-June 6, 2025. Get in touch and we can send you all the details ... Here's what you can expect: Mentawais Ship's Log 2022